Hotel Designs editor Hamish Kilburn breaks down the week with the top five stories…

With our focus this month being on fabrics, textiles and soft furnishings, weaving together this week’s top five stories has been one that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Mitre Linen has put the topic of soft furnishings firmly in the spotlight to unveil new ways in which hotels can stand out from the crowd. In other news, hotel group IHG seems to be going from strength to strength, unveiling yet another Hotel Indigo property, this time in the City of Design in Dundee, Scotland. In rather apt form, with the World Cup final fast approaching, our editorial team have been busy to uncover the best design hotels in Russia. On top of all this, SLEEP + EAT, which takes shelter under a new roof this year at London’s Olympia, has unveiled the themes and designers for this year’s Sleep Sets, while SB Architects unveils two rather unusual hotels in China.

Topping our charts this week is the new arrival of a funky hotel in the City of Design… InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has opened Hotel Indigo® Dundee, in one of Europe’s rising design destinations – Dundee, Scotland. Once famous for its textiles, the city’s industrial spaces are now filled with artists and collectives, including a thriving gaming community who have helped turn Dundee into the creative heart of the world’s computer games industry.

Sleep + Eat has announced the theme for this year’s Sleep Sets, as well as the four design companies inspired to create the concept rooms. The challenge for each designer is to partner with a brand but, in the tradition of Sleep + Eat, these brands are not the usual suspects. HBA London will be working with the Natural History Museum; Denton Corker Marshall will tackle West Ham Football Club; Yasmine Mahmoudieh is to pair with Penguin Modern Classics; and AB Concept will collaborate with Maison Pierre Hermé Paris. Each Sleep Set designer has been tasked with creating a guestroom concept based on their partner brand’s aesthetic and values. Innovative and engaging, the sets will facilitate new and imaginative ways for visitors to interact with the selected brands.

SB Architects has announced several new planned communities and destinations in China, including two new winery boutique hotels. From winery resorts in Dalian and Beijing to mixed-use developments in emerging areas, SB Architects has announced master planned projects for its Chinese clients looking to capitalise on the China’s growing luxury lifestyle industry.

Simon O’Mahony, Managing Director of Mitre Linen, explains how soft furnishings, linen and colour can help a hotel stand out from the crowd. Hospitality is a congested market, and customers are increasingly discerning with a huge range of options to choose from. In short, it’s crucial to stand out by having a clear identity which extends into every room of your hotel. Having a well-defined offering clearly positions your business and makes it more appealing to particular customers. What’s more, using colour can help bring the values of your business into every room.

Riddled in history, Russia holds many hotel gems within its borders. In recent years, hospitality has also been on the rise with a boom in hotel development. TOPHOTELCONSTRUCTION database recently confirmed this by announcing that Russia has 96 projects upcoming hotels that are slated to shelter 18,437 rooms. Of these projects, 49 percent of the hotels are being planned to open in 2021 or beyond, while a whopping 17 per cent are expected to open this year.

With this in mind, and as the eyes of the world focus on the host nation in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup final, our editorial team did some digging to unveil the best design hotels in Russia – and here they are in no particular order.